Quebec admits flaws in breast cancer tests
December 17, 2009
Jocelyne Richer
THE CANADIAN PRESS
QUEBEC–A new study says nearly 40 Quebec women with breast cancer received improper treatment since last year because of testing irregularities – and five of them died.
The provincial study arrived Wednesday as a follow-up to a report that cited problems with Quebec's screening practices.
Health Minister Yves Bolduc ordered the review in June. He asked for thousands of cancer tests to be redone after an extensive study suggested there were problems with Quebec's screening process.
The original study by Dr. Louis Gaboury, head of the Quebec Association of Pathologists, examined almost 3,000 breast-cancer tests conducted over 14 months starting in April 2008.
Out of 2,856 exams reviewed, 87 errors were found in the test results. The new provincial study, released Wednesday, confirms 39 cancer sufferers failed to receive the proper care.
Bolduc said there was no proof the five deaths were caused by improper treatment.
He said that mortality rate was normal for cases of breast cancer.
The health minister also defended the quality of breast-cancer tests in Quebec, saying the error rate fell well below what he described as the 10-per-cent norm for such screening.
"Our laboratories are of a very high quality," the minister said.
"Our results in pathology, in Quebec, are world class."
The government says test results can vary as much as 20 per cent from one lab to another.
Bolduc declined, however, to explicitly rule out the possibility that insufficient care might have caused any of the deaths.
He said the families of the five victims are being contacted.
Quebec's College of Physicians said it was satisfied with the government's handling of the issue.
The provincial medical specialists' federation called the study an important one but stressed that any variation between test results between two labs should be "as small as possible."
In North America, one woman dies from breast cancer every 12 minutes.
According to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, an estimated 22,700 women in Canada will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009.
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